On Wings of Song
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Cover of first US hardcover edition (St. Martin's Press, 1979)
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| Author | Thomas M. Disch |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Victor Gollancz Ltd |
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Publication date
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1979 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 315 pp |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 6437204 |
On Wings of Song is a 1979 science fiction novel by Thomas M. Disch. It was first published as a serial in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in three installments in February to April 1979. Like Disch's previous novel 334, it is a bitter satire that depicts a near-future America falling into worsening economic and social crisis. Despite being critically well received, it was a commercial failure.
"On Wings of Song" is the English title of the German Romantic poem "Auf Flügeln des Gesanges" by Heinrich Heine, which was set to music by Felix Mendelssohn. The lyric speaks of flying with a lover to a peaceful paradise in "the fields of the Ganges".
The novel takes place in suburban Iowa and in New York City, around the middle of the 21st century. Its first section describes the childhood and adolescence of Daniel Weinreb, an imaginative boy who manages to adapt well to his conservative surroundings until a minor act of rebellion sends him to prison at age 14. Daniel's experience there makes him eager to leave the Midwest. After falling in love with the daughter of a powerful and reactionary local tycoon, he moves with her to New York, dreaming of becoming a musician and exploring the forbidden art of "flying"—electronically-assisted astral projection. Tragedy and exploitation leave Daniel's idealism in ruins, but he persists and becomes an internationally famous and controversial performer.
Alongside this Bildungsroman storyline, the novel presents a detailed portrait of a future United States torn by economic hardship and culture war. The Midwestern Farm Belt states are ruled by a coalition of the Christian right, known as "undergoders" (a reference to the successful conservative campaign to add the words "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance); the nominally secular government is socially repressive and business-friendly to an extreme. The coastal states more closely resemble present-day urban America, with generally permissive social attitudes and artistic ferment, but great economic inequality.
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